The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-02/06/2018
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FIRST-PERSON: Archaeology -- from the subtle to the sublime
by Gary D. Myers
Date: February 06, 2018 - Tuesday
NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- A massive pile of rocks and rubble greets the visitor to the ruins of Lachish, 60 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem. The remains of a 2,700-year-old Assyrian siege ramp, this pile of rubble and the other archaeological finds at Lachish bear witness to the trustworthy nature of Scripture.
More often than not, archaeology serves as a subtle, helpful tool for the church. Archaeology provides cultural and contextual clues to help us better understand the people and places of the Bible. The finds help close the culture gap created by time, place and worldview.
Certain sites and finds offer more than mere context, and that is why I love Lachish. While the archaeology of Lachish cannot prove the amazing works of God, it does offer confirmation of an important biblical account.
It was during the reign of Hezekiah that Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, attacked Judah and built the siege ramp at Lachish. You can read about the events in 2 Kings 18 and 19, 2 Chronicles 32, and Isaiah 36 and 37.
Tired of paying tribute to Assyria, Hezekiah rebelled and began preparing Judah for war. Twenty years earlier the Assyrians had destroyed Israel, and Sennacherib now had his sights on Judah. In 701 B.C., the Assyrians marched on Judah leaving a wake of death and destruction.
Biblical accounts, Assyrian records, excavation reports and a carved relief (a pictorial representation of the Lachish siege that adorned Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh) make Sennacherib's invasion of Judah one of the most attested events in ancient history. In addition to the literary accounts and the siege ramp, archaeologists discovered countless Assyrian arrowheads and a mass grave at Lachish holding the remains of 1,500 people. Researchers have uncovered widespread evidence that Hezekiah was fortifying cities and stockpiling supplies. In short, the evidence converges to provide confirmation of the biblical account of Sennacherib's invasion.
As one might expect, the biblical and Assyrian accounts differ in focus, purpose and intended audience. Assyrian accounts brag about Sennacherib surrounding the city of Jerusalem and trapping Hezekiah "like a bird in a cage." The Bible tells us that Hezekiah and Isaiah prayed to God for deliverance of Jerusalem and that God sent an angel to destroy the Assyrian army leading to Sennacherib's retreat to Assyria.
When people learn that I am an archaeologist-in-training, the conversation usually drifts toward the idea that archaeology can prove the Bible. Lachish illustrates the possibilities of biblical archaeology as well as its limitations. The message from archaeology can range from the subtle (context and culture) to the sublime (confirmation). While archaeology can confirm aspects of the biblical story -- events, people, places and customs, it cannot "prove" the most important aspects of the Bible.
The core message of the Bible focuses on God's supernatural interactions with His creation -- the ultimate interaction coming in the Incarnation, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. These God-sized, God-initiated interactions with humankind are what archaeology is powerless to prove. God is too great and His actions are too grand to be proven by digging up the discarded and broken items left by His people.
People usually ask me a follow-up question which goes something like this: "If archaeology cannot prove the Bible, is it really worthwhile?"
For the past eight years New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's Moskau Institute has been excavating an ancient Canaanite water system at Tel Gezer in hopes of providing these subtle, but important context clues to enhance our understanding of the Bible. In seven of those years with this dig into Canaanite culture, I have witnessed the technological skill, the humanity, the deep depravity, and the pagan expression of a people group which played such an important role in Old Testament Israel.
As I peel back layers of dirt to reveal the nuances of cultures and customs, my appreciation of the Bible grows exponentially. Though the Bible needs no outside confirmation, every chip of flint, every piece of pottery, every stone wall I encounter adds to my confidence in God's Word. As I think about it, it is hard to call even these small lessons subtle. The knowledge gained for the church and the study of Scripture makes the investment of time, sweat and money doing archaeology worthwhile.
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Ready for the Olympics? Invite the neighbors
by Grace Thornton
Date: February 06, 2018 - Tuesday
RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- It was like a blind date with the whole world watching. There at the 2012 Olympic pentathlon event in London, not one of the athletes knew which horse they would be riding during the equestrian show-jumping leg of the competition.
Each athlete was given 20 minutes to test-ride their steed and figure out their horse's personality before they were sent out onto the international stage to try to make it over fifteen jumps. In past Olympics, a lot of riders have been sent flying over jumps without their horse coming with them.
With that heavy on our minds, we in the audience sat totally still with nervous smiles, barely breathing. We had just been told that any sudden noises could startle the horses, so as the first horse skittered out of the gate and into the arena, nobody lifted a nacho, a soft drink, or a flag. We all collectively waited to see what would happen, and we silently hoped on the athletes' behalf. Everyone wanted everyone to succeed.
It was unusual. But it was something really great.
Crowd with a purpose
In a time when the world seemed crazy, gathering as people of different nations to watch athletes take on a race -- while holding our breath and hoping no one would fall -- felt like something our souls already knew how to do.
We all hurt for the guy from South Korea when his horse shook him off before he even started. And we all cheered as the guy from Egypt masterfully guided a very agile horse around the course -- Egypt, a country that in the years prior had been rife with violent political struggles.
As the opening ceremony for this year's Winter Olympics in South Korea gets closer, I'm reminded of that day in London -- the day that felt like a tiny glimpse of what it might be like to be a part of a great cloud of witnesses one day. I remember how just looking around at the peaceful gathering of the nations made me feel a pull in my soul toward heaven, toward a day when a multitude from every tribe, tongue and nation will fall down in worship of the One who made us all and calls us to himself (Revelation 7:9).
And I'm reminded of how much more infinitely peaceful that day will be.
Opportunity to reach out
This Olympics, as you watch people compete in events like curling or skiing or shooting, let it be an opportunity to remember who we are, why we're here, and the eternity to which we are all heading. Let it be an opportunity to remember that our big wide world is full of billions of living, breathing souls all striving for similar things -- to achieve purpose in life, to make their life count somehow.
And let it be a bridge to reach out.
Many of us have neighbors or colleagues from different countries. Invite them over for a meal and to watch the Olympics together. Maybe even ask them to bring a dish from their country and share your cuisines. Talk about what sports are like in their country and what brings their countrymen together.
This Olympics, as you watch people compete, let it be an opportunity to remember who we are, why we're here, and the eternity to which we are all heading.
The Olympics are an easy topic around which to unite, talk about what we have in common, and build relationships. In some way, the games speak to the hearts of everyone. People in every culture know what it's like to spend their lives trying to achieve something. Every person knows what it's like to try to find meaning and purpose.
Use these Olympic games to ask people about their passion in life and what they're striving for. Ask them what they want their big life achievements to be. Ask them where they find their purpose. Ask them if they've ever been disappointed in that quest. Ask if their accomplishments have fulfilled them like they thought they would.
Then after they've shared, tell them your own story -- about how you were striving for purpose in worldly things before you met Jesus Christ and He gave you a whole new reason for living. Share how your identity rests in Jesus, not in what you might achieve. Sure, humans can learn to do some amazing things, but nothing compares to the purpose we will find in Christ. And nothing we achieve here will ever compare to the prize that He offers us in Himself.
That's what we're to be about -- sharing with those who have never heard.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:14–21 that because we as Christ followers are adopted into God's family, the love of Christ controls us. Our new identity as children of the living God gives us a purpose -- we're compelled by love to be Christ's ambassadors to the world, imploring them to receive the hope being held out to them in Jesus.
That's how the crowd from Revelation 7:9 will be realized -- when we take that message to every nation, people and language and see them adopted into the family too.
The Olympics is a great bridge to enter a conversation about the race we're running and the hope that we have -- a hope that will gather the nations together one day in a way that is a million times more peaceful, a million times better.
Read other stories at imb.org.
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Chaplains reflect on Sutherland Springs tragedy
by Jane Rodgers/Southern Baptist TEXAN
Date: February 06, 2018 - Tuesday
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (BP) -- Trained in critical incident stress management, Debby Tiller Nichols heard about the church shooting in Sutherland Springs and knew she had to go.
Nichols, of Texarkana, was packing her house to move when 27 people were killed at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church in November. But she and four other Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC) chaplains would minister to the Sutherland Springs community alongside a half-dozen Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) chaplains from Oklahoma.
"I knew there [also] would be needs among the police officers, paramedics and all the first responders," Nichols told the TEXAN. "I knew I needed to be there."
Months later, Nichols is among those still processing the tragedy and its aftermath.
"It seems like much longer. On the other hand, it seems like last week," she said.
Nichols and chaplain Linda Mitter of Rockwall ministered to first responders and civilians during the week they served in Sutherland Springs. They huddled in prayer with state troopers at the cordoned-off crime scene in front of the church and spoke to and prayed with community members.
"We shared and prayed with the troopers," said Mitter, explaining that the officers had lost one of their own only the day before when Dallas police trooper Thomas Nipper was killed during a traffic stop.
Nichols remembered a conversation with a sergeant from the Dallas Police Department. Some of the sergeant's men had died in the 2016 Dallas police shootings.
"My people were killed," the Dallas officer told Nichols.
Nichols noted, "It was very emotional for her, with her situation."
"Most of what we did is listen to their stories and pray for them," Nichols said. "That's what we do. We listen and pray."
Gordon Knight, SBTC director of chaplains, said chaplains "try to get people to talk so they can tell their story so they can start the healing process. When they open up to us, we invite them to pray."
Knight said disaster relief chaplains made hundreds of spiritual contacts in Sutherland Springs.
"Mostly we walked through the community," Mitter said. "We'd go to the community center and visit with anybody."
Anybody included the clerk in the convenience store next to the church who had been in the store when the shots sounded.
"They heard the gunshots and knew it was not good," Nichols said. "The person [Johnnie Langendorff] who drove the truck to pursue the shooter was her last customer that morning."
Mitter acknowledged she had served as a chaplain before, but it was "nothing that dealt with this magnitude of death." She described the experience as "overwhelming" and "tough," her voice cracking as she praised the community and local pastors -- including Paul Buford of River Oaks Baptist Church -- who showed love, support and peace in the midst of tragedy.
Sutherland Springs was a "different kind of disaster, unimaginable," Henry Van de Putte, executive director of the San Antonio Red Cross, told the TEXAN. Van de Putte praised Southern Baptist chaplains.
"It is an inspiration to me to walk in and see the sea of yellow shirts and know [things] are taken care of spiritually," Van de Putte said.
Sometimes spiritual connections were made using stuffed animals.
Before the community-wide prayer service at a local football field, SBDR chaplains distributed wristbands, 300 plush animals and toys, and 200 Bibles donated by LifeWay Christian Resources to the crowd entering the gates.
"Thank you," 10-year-old Sammy Rodriguez exclaimed as Oklahoma DR chaplain Dave Karr handed him a children's Bible.
The toys and Bibles were for "anyone who wants them, to help them feel at ease" said SBTC chaplain Aaron Treanor, pastor of San Antonio's Brookhill Baptist Church.
Following the prayer event, which included Vice President Mike Pence and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, chaplains offered counseling in the adjacent school gym to any who needed to talk, reporting that two people prayed to receive Christ that night.
Nichols summed up her Sutherland Springs experience by applauding the community's resilience.
"What I went there for was to provide some kind of comfort to the people affected," she said. "What I took away from there was comfort from the people affected. They blessed my socks off."
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FROM THE STATES: Texas, Ill. and Ark. evangelism/missions news; Ministering to Ecuador's 'marginalized and disenfranchised'
by Staff
Date: February 06, 2018 - Tuesday
Today's From the States features items from:
Southern Baptist TEXAN
The Illinois Baptist
Arkansas Baptist News
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Texas churches build wall in
Ecuador, break down barriers
By Jane Rodgers
LARGATO, Ecuador (Southern Baptist TEXAN) -- The impoverished parish of Lagarto, nestled near the coast in the province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, is changing, thanks in part to a dozen Texas Southern Baptist churches that discovered that to break down barriers, you sometimes need to build a wall.
The Ecuadorian partnership was connected to the International Mission Board's emphasis on reaching unreached people groups and primarily involved churches in the Dallas Baptist Association.
The churches -- including 10 predominantly African American congregations -- sent teams to Lagarto for the past four years under the coordination of Barry Calhoun, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention mobilization director and church planting associate.
The black Texans ministered to black Ecuadorians, the bulk of Lagarto's population and a group Calhoun called historically "marginalized and disenfranchised."
Calhoun said that one translator from Quito helping his groups even announced, in tears, that she had "never been around black people before."
"And she was Ecuadorian," he exclaimed.
During the first two years of the partnership, teams focused on providing English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at the local high school. Attended by students and teachers, the classes provided rare English instruction in the town where schools did not offer the subject, although Quito schools had taught English for decades.
This has changed, as Lagarto public schools now include English.
In recent years, missions teams emphasized discipleship instead of ESL, hosting VBS programs and Bible training for adults.
They also built a wall.
For decades, the middle school Unidad Educativa Aurelia Becerra de Quiñonez, surrounded by red brick walls on only three sides, remained vulnerable to vandals and transients who stole from both school and teachers.
"As a project last year, we decided to the finish the wall," Calhoun said.
Little did they know the significance of this gesture, which provided needed security for the schoolchildren.
So important was the wall, that townspeople, frustrated by the government and school system's repeated failure to complete it, had boycotted the major local festival in protest earlier that year.
"That tells you how big a deal the wall was to them," Calhoun said. "When we put the wall up, they were ecstatic."
Last fall, when groups returned to dedicate the wall, Calhoun expected a short ceremony. Instead, some 800 students, plus teachers and administrators, poured into the schoolyard for a three-hour celebration featuring special foods and cultural dances.
"It was their celebration of thanksgiving to us," Calhoun explained. "It was really special for us to see this."
Rather than a plaque, a bench inscribed with the school's name formalizes the building of the wall by the African American churches of the SBTC for the people of Lagarto and the children of the school.
While the formal Ecuadorian partnership is ending after its planned four-year run, relationships between the African American churches and the Afro-Ecuadorians will continue.
At the request of Hilda Alvarez, vice-president of the board of trustees of the parish of Lagarto, Calhoun and teams have agreed to return next year to participate in the Life Transformation Conference, scheduled for Oct. 23-29, 2018, addressing community concerns such as drug and alcohol abuse and teenage sexual promiscuity.
"It was impossible to say no. Their teen pregnancy rate is epidemic, even sub-teen rates are up," Calhoun said, adding that incidences of 10-year-old girls becoming pregnant had even occurred.
The outdoor event will include from 1,500 to 2,000 kids and adults. Calhoun plans to use the "True Love Waits" curriculum from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and other resources.
"We'll do some teaching. We'll also try to reach the parents. We've got to change the culture of the parents before we can change the culture of the kids," he said, adding that a logo had already been sent to organizers in Lagarto to show Ecuadorians that "the American churches are coming to help."
Calhoun summed up the Lagarto experience with one word: "hope," noting that discussions were in progress with a young local man who had expressed a desire to become a pastor.
While the Ecuadorian partnership is formally ending, work is just beginning in Havana, Cuba.
"We are still in conversations with a number of people [about Cuba]," said Calhoun, alluding to church planting goals still in the early stages.
SBTC staff attended the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention annual meeting this November, Calhoun added, noting that both stewardship and revitalization summits are planned for at least two islands, possibly more, in 2018.
In the continental United States, revitalization efforts in Montana continue, Calhoun said. Near El Paso, Texas borderlands strategies also remain effective, as does the Reach Houston effort, where the Bi-Stone Baptist Association of churches recently agreed to send teams, starting next year, to assist church planters.
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This article appeared in the Southern Baptist TEXAN (texanonline.net), newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Jane Rodgers is a correspondent for the Southern Baptist TEXAN.
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Ill. refugee simulation
shines light on global crisis
By Andrew Woodrow
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (The Illinois Baptist) -- The lights in the room dimmed. Suddenly, there were loud, wailing sirens and the sounds of hovering aircraft and explosions. Shouts could be heard from each corner of the room as the girls yelled out, eagerly looking to find the rest of their lost family members.
The IBSA Building was transformed into a refugee camp Nov. 5 for the annual AWSOM conference for young women (AWSOM stands for "Amazing Women Serving Our Maker"). Through an intensive, simulated overnight experience, this year's AWSOM focused on helping the 222 students in attendance understand the plight of the refugee, and how they can help. Attenders also heard the stories of Christians who have lived with persecution.
After the simulated war broke out, the students, grouped in "families" of five, were instructed to find refuge in a neighboring country. They could only travel with limited items, however, and had to leave the rest of their belongings behind.
When the girls reached their temporary shelter, a setup of makeshift tents representing a refugee camp, they were given minimal supplies. Current and former missionaries dressed as border guards spoke only the language of the countries they served, to represent the foreign atmosphere to which refugees must adapt.
In the end, the family had to make the decision either to return home to their war-torn country, navigating elements such as land mines, or to apply for citizenship in the new country in hopes of building a new life.
The crisis is real
Prior to the simulation, International Mission Board missionary Christopher Mauger showed a brief aerial video clip documenting the plight of the Rohingya Muslims as they fled from Myanmar, formerly called Burma.
Mauger, who serves in Southeast Asia, described the situation as "desperate" and "unbelievable," and as a crisis that "needs prayer." "If they have to go down [to Bangladesh] for refuge, it's really bad," he said. "There's nothing there."
Mauger explained how "hundreds of thousands" of Rohingya Muslims have been exiting the country as a result of persecution from Myanmar's government, which is Buddhist.
"For those who have a place to live, they are living in camps with plastic for roofing," Mauger said. "They are crowded in small areas, food is scarce, and they don't have any hygienic necessities."
Mauger described how easy it is to get distracted with a situation like this by blaming the evil in this world. But by changing their perspective, he said, Christians can help. "We can tell these people about God," he said, "by giving and supporting the Christian organizations that are helping in that area."
Becki McNeely, a leader from Lakeland Baptist Church, said AWSOM "opened the students' eyes to an increased awareness of the state of refugees."
Several students echoed McNeely. One young woman described how it "must be hard to live in a persecuted country" after hearing the accounts of the speakers. Several more expressed their increased awareness of the refugee crises and were "saddened" at its reality.
Carmen Halsey, director of women's ministry and missions, said IBSA is securing resources to inform churches about refugee issues. She added that she hoped the experience helped students to be able to "feel the psychological anguish caused by separation and flight" and to "see what forces people into refugee situations," as well as adopting a more welcoming attitude towards refugees in their own country.
Go to vimeo.com/IBSA to view video from this year's AWSOM conference.
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This article appeared in The Illinois Baptist (illinoisbaptist.org), newsjournal of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Andrew Woodrow is a multimedia journalist with the Illinois Baptist State Association.
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Ark.'s City Center Conversations
aim to tackle the big questions
By Caleb Yarbrough
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Arkansas Baptist News) -- In a day marked by distractions and confirmation bias, a new ministry is attempting to create a space for exploring big questions from faith-based perspectives.
City Center Conversations is an event series started by members of Immanuel Baptist Church, Little Rock, and hosted by Steven Smith, the church's pastor.
According to its website, the organization's "strategy is to host nationally known speakers, who are living out their faith in the public square to Little Rock, to have open conversations about faith and tackle some of the biggest questions of the day."
According to Smith, many churches don't do a great job at "influencing the influencers and reaching the intellectual community."
"I have talked about this with Robert Lewis, a member of Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock. He said, 'You have to understand that the influencers are the underserved in our city. They are just the intellectually underserved and spiritually underserved.'"
Smith said that this concept of Little Rock's influencers and intellectuals being underserved resonated with him and with multiple laymen at Immanuel Baptist. The laymen were excited to employ their interest in "conversations that stimulate the left brain" as a way to engage similarly wired believers and non-believers alike in meaningful interactions.
"The great thing about Little Rock is that if you can arrest the attention of a few, you can arrest the attention of a lot. You are only two or three conversations away from reaching a big part of the city," said Smith.
The first City Center Conversations event was held Dec. 12 at Robinson Center in downtown Little Rock. More than 500 people attended the sold-out event. Guests included Christian church leaders from multiple denominations, local businessmen and women and state and local politicians.
"It has really resonated with people in the city. I think they have wanted something like this, a venue where they can have these types of conversations," Smith said. "Say you work downtown and you are a doctor or you are at a big law firm, what are you going to invite your buddy to at church? There are not many things (that allow for this).
"It (City Center Conversations) allows you to come into a non-threatening environment. It is fun and it's relaxed," Smith said. "It isn't evangelism. It is more pre-evangelism. But it is an entre to the Gospel."
The second event will be held Feb. 20 at the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock. The special guest for the event will be Lee Strobel, author of multiple best-selling books, including "The Case for Christ," which was recently adapted into a film of the same name.
In addition to authors like Eric Metaxas and Strobel, Smith said that future events will feature guests who specialize in myriad areas, including apologetics, science and entertainment. Smith will continue to serve as host of each City Center Conversations event.
According to Smith, the goal is to hold three to four City Center Conversations events each year.
One of the overarching aims of City Center Conversations is to have conversations about faith. And while members of Immanuel Baptist started the organization, the hope is that theological, political and/or cultural differences would not hinder open, honest and fruitful discussion.
"Honestly, one of the reasons I love this is because I want to bring in people to this who I may not have in my pulpit," Smith said.
"There are guys that I would not have in my pulpit, not because they were unbelievers or pagans but because I have a narrow understanding of the calling of a pastor in that role.
"With this (City Center Conversations), however, I feel a tremendous amount of freedom," he said.
"If a guy was a different political or theological affiliation from me, I don't have to make that clear in that environment because it's probably already assumed that we are different," Smith said.
"It's an environment where we can think about the right things without having to affirm the differences."
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This article appeared in the Arkansas Baptist News (http://www.arkansasbaptist.org/), newsjournal of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. Caleb Yarbrough is assistant editor at the Arkansas Baptist News.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: From the States, published each Tuesday by Baptist Press, relays news and feature stories from state Baptist papers and other publications on initiatives by Baptist churches, associations and state conventions in evangelism, church planting and Great Commission outreach, including partnership missions. Reports about churches, associations and state conventions responding to the International Mission Board's call to embrace the world's unengaged, unreached people groups also are included in From the States, along with reports about church, associational and state convention initiatives in conjunction with the North American Mission Board's call to Southern Baptist churches to broaden their efforts in starting new churches and satellite campuses. Except for minor style, security, formatting and grammatical changes, the items appear in Baptist Press as originally published.
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WorldCrafts to aid Baptist foster care ministries
by Robin McCall
Date: February 06, 2018 - Tuesday
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.(BP) -- WorldCrafts, the global fair trade division of Woman's Missionary Union (WMU), has launched an initiative to support the work of the Baptist Coalition for Children and Families, encompassing Baptist children's ministries in 19 states.
Through the initiative, churches or individuals can support at-risk children in foster care while also providing life-sustaining work for overseas artisans and their families affiliated with WorldCrafts in 24 countries.
Currently more than 430,000 children are in foster care in the United States alone, according to Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System within the Department of Health and Human Services. Baptist children and family ministries serve this population through Christ-centered care and resources to protect foster children and to reunify families.
To help support children served by local Baptist children and family ministries, churches or individuals can host a one-month online WorldCrafts benefit utilizing multiple dozens of artisan-produced products.
To begin the process of hosting a benefit, an individual would complete an online registration form, available here. Then WorldCrafts will create a unique promotion kit for the host, including a webpage, promotion code, media slides, social media images and a bulletin insert. Twenty percent of all sales generated by the benefit will go directly to the host's selected Baptist children and family ministry.
Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director of national WMU, said the initiative to assist Baptist children and family ministries is a natural fit for WorldCrafts.
"Most faith communities are aware of the foster care crisis in our country," Wisdom-Martin said. "Many people have a desire to assist foster children, but don't know how or where to get started. This initiative through WorldCrafts can help create connections between churches and families and their local Baptist children and family ministry."
Initially, WorldCrafts is launching the initiative in conjunction with Arizona Baptist Children's Services & Family Ministries and Alabama Baptist Children's Homes & Family Ministries. It plans to expand the initiative by creating additional partnerships with Baptist children and family ministries throughout the country.
Like Baptist children and family ministries, WorldCrafts aims to bring grace and restoration to hurting people throughout the world. WorldCrafts exists to develop sustainable, fair-trade businesses among impoverished artisans in a vision to provide an income with dignity and the hope of everlasting life to every person on earth.
Founded by WMU in 1996, WorldCrafts is online at www.worldcrafts.org. Its latest catalogs of artisans' products can be accessed at www.worldcrafts.org/catalog.
WorldCrafts encourages churches and individuals to partner with children and family ministries by:
-- Praying for their local Baptist children and family ministry.
-- Supporting their local Baptist children and family ministry by hosting benefits and visiting WorldCrafts.org to learn how to raise awareness of their work in the community.
-- Going to their local Baptist children and family ministry and exploring how to assist with current ministry needs.
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Christian wedding cake baker wins Calif. court battle
by Diana Chandler
Date: February 06, 2018 - Tuesday
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (BP) -- A California trial court has upheld a Christian baker's right to refuse to create a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, but the decision comes as a similar case is already pending in the nation's highest court.
Tastries Bakery owner Cathy Miller's freedom of speech "outweighs" the state of California's interest in ensuring a freely accessible marketplace, Judge David R. Lampe said in his decision in the Superior Court of California in Kern County, one of the state's 58 trial courts.
Standing to set a legal precedent is the case of Colorado baker and Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, deliberated before the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2017. A ruling is expected within months in Phillips' fight to limit his creativity as a wedding cake baker to marriages between a man and a woman.
In California, Southern Baptist pastor Roger Spradlin was among about 200 of Miller's supporters who attended a Feb. 2 Bakersfield prayer rally in advance of Lampe's decision.
"She declined to design a wedding cake for a lesbian couple's wedding, not because she is not loving or compassionate," Spradlin told Baptist Press today (Feb. 6), "but because of her own religious and biblical convictions that marriage was designed by God between one man and one woman."
Spradlin urges continued prayer on behalf of Miller, a longtime member at his pastorate, Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield.
"I encourage all Christians to continue to pray about this important biblical issue as a similar case is being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court," Spradlin said. "We are pleased that the court courageously ruled to follow the Constitution rather than prevailing culture in protecting Cathy's religious freedom to follow her conscience."
Lampe, in his decision, wrote that both freedom of speech and a nondiscriminatory marketplace are laudable and necessary but said the facts of the case favor Miller. The state's complaint, based on the Unruh Act, which prohibits discrimination based on both religion and sexual orientation, lacks the merit to succeed, Lampe said.
"The difference here is that the cake in question is not yet baked. The State is not petitioning the court to order defendants to sell a cake," Lampe wrote. "The State asks this court to compel Miller to use her talents to design and create a cake she has not yet conceived with the knowledge that her work will be displayed in celebration of a marital union her religion forbids.
"For this court to force such compliance would do violence to the essentials of Free Speech guaranteed under the First Amendment," Lampe wrote.
The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing had sought a preliminary injunction to force Miller to either bake wedding cakes for homosexual couples or stop selling wedding cakes, which comprise 40 percent of her sales. The state filed the petition after Miller refused in August 2017 to design a wedding cake for Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-Del Rio.
Hailing the California ruling a victory is the nonprofit Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF), Miller's defense team in the case, Department of Fair Employment and Housing vs. Cathy's Creations, Inc.
"This is a major victory for faith and freedom because the judge indicated in his ruling that the State cannot succeed in this case as a matter of law," FCDF chief counsel Charles LiMandri said today in a press release. "No doubt the California officials will continue their persecution of Cathy, but it is clear that she has the Constitution on her side."
FCDF Executive Director Daniel Piedra has established a fundraiser for Miller at GoFundMe.com with a $100,000 goal. The 10-day-old campaign had raised just over $1,300 as of this morning.
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State papers celebrate milestones, consider future
by David Roach
Date: February 06, 2018 - Tuesday
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Milestone anniversaries of two Baptist state newspapers have occasioned reflection on the present ministry of state papers and their future role among Southern Baptists.
The Alabama Baptist celebrated 175 years of continuous publication today (Feb. 6) with a birthday party in Marion, Ala., site of the paper's founding. North Carolina's Biblical Recorder marked 185 years of ministry Jan. 17.
"State Baptist papers are a vital expression of Baptist theology, polity and practice," Alabama Baptist editor Bob Terry told Baptist Press via email. "... In my judgement, Southern Baptists cannot lose state Baptist papers without losing crucial elements of how we have lived together as part of the Body of Christ.
"State Baptist papers face significant challenges, to be sure, but most of these challenges are the same challenges facing every part of our denomination. Together God can guide us through these challenges so we will continue to have faithful Christian disciples, strong life-changing churches and a denomination that unites us in missions and ministries," said Terry, who will present his view of Baptist state papers March 2 during a symposium at Samford University.
Cumulative circulation of state papers -- newsjournals linked in various manners with Baptist state conventions -- has decreased by 67 percent over the past 40 years, according to statistics reported in Southern Baptist Convention Annuals. The present circulation of 593,500 represents a drop of nearly 1.2 million since 1977 and 418,000 in the past 10 years for print and digital editions.
Yet website traffic and social media exposure, which are not reported in SBC Annuals, appear to have grown exponentially over that period.
"Regardless of changes in the world of technology," Biblical Recorder editor Allan Blume wrote in a January editorial, "information that is truthful and accurate will always have an audience."
Papers 'had to make adjustments'
Tim Boyd, president of the Association of State Baptist Papers, told BP the two greatest challenges facing state papers are revenue decreases and a shift toward electronic reading, especially among younger generations.
To confront those challenges, Boyd said, many state papers have decreased the frequency of their print editions and shifted to the less expensive medium of online content. In some cases -- as with Georgia's Christian Index -- content now is delivered exclusively online.
At least 23 of the 42 Baptist state news outlets maintain print editions, according to the 2017 SBC Annual, though all but five of those have abandoned weekly publication. Some papers have moved to a magazine format rather than the traditional tabloid, and many publish their print edition monthly or quarterly.
"Most state conventions" -- and by extension state papers -- "have had to make adjustments in what they do because of financial changes," said Boyd, editor of Kansas-Nebraska's Baptist Digest. "Part of that is changes at the national level," like reallocation of funds by the North American Mission Board and decreased subscriptions.
"Part of that is just the giving trends in churches as well," Boyd said, noting state papers are funded in part through the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists' unified channel for funding state, North American and international missions and ministries.
Since the economic recession of 2008, total CP receipts through state conventions have yet to recover to the 2007-08 level of nearly $542 million. In 2015-16, the last year for which statistics are available, total CP receipts through state conventions came in at $475, according to SBC.net.
Among revenue-generating initiatives attempted by state papers since 2008 are online "pay walls" that restrict access to free content, a book publishing venture by South Carolina's Baptist Courier and a family magazine published by the Arkansas Baptist News in addition to its regular newsjournal.
'A critical ... resource'
Despite the challenges, Baptist journalists say there is a future for state papers.
BP editor Shawn Hendricks said that future includes state papers' coverage of local events for the broader Southern Baptist public.
"Baptist state papers are a critical partner and resource in our work at Baptist Press," Hendricks said in written comments. "While BP helps provide feature articles, news reports and occasional exclusive stories for them to report from a national perspective, they are the eyes and ears of what is happening in their state.
"And we often look to them to provide helpful on-the-ground coverage, whether the story involves a natural disaster, an annual state meeting or a real-world example of outreach ministry in their area. Together, we look to give Southern Baptists a broader view of what is going on in SBC life," Hendricks said.
Boyd and Blume both speculated that the future of state papers could include a resurgence of print editions.
"About half of all readers still prefer to hold the printed piece in their hands," Blume wrote, "and the shift toward the print seems to be gaining popularity. Take note that magazines are still very popular. Also, note that neither LifeWay nor Barnes & Noble have closed their bookstores."
Additionally, Boyd said, in the future state papers will continue to communicate the mission and vision of state conventions.
"As long as state conventions and Baptists within those conventions have a need for communication," Boyd said, "I think there's a future for the state paper in one form or another."